Say WHAT?

Frequent correspondent Lin sent this along yesterday, with the simple observation that this vid beats "How animals eat."



She's right, yanno?

We Are Slightly Depressed

The Beloved Wings are no longer on the playoff bubble... they're UNDER it.

Two back-to-back OT losses puts them in ninth place in the Western Conference... in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot, with Dallas having the tie-breaker and the Wings out.  Things are looking grim in Motown and there's every indication that the longest running playoff streak in professional sports will come to an end this year.

I suppose the run had to end sometime... nothing is forever... but it sure is depressing.

Update, 1315 hrs:  OTOH, there's this lil blurb...

Talk about "irrational exuberance."  If I were a Stars fan I'd just be happy with making the playoffs... period, end of report.  The jury's still out in their case.  Waaay out.

Saturday

Another lame week at the Usual Source.



And THAT was the best... in a dead heat with this one:



Sigh.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack: Two Retribution Songs

First there's this:

When you first left me
I was wanting more
But you were fucking that girl next door
What'd you do that for?

[...]

At first when I see you cry
Yeah, it makes me smile
Yeah, it makes me smile
At worst I feel bad for awhile
But then I just smile
I go ahead and smile  

Heh.  The full lyrics are here.  The song makes me smile (did I REALLY have to say that?) but it doesn't QUITE contain the vitriol and emotion of this tune:



We've posted that tune before... a couple o' times, actually.  Young Hailey holds the title when it comes to retribution songs and personifies that "Hell hath no fury" thing.  Both tunes are great good stuff... and it's stuff that rings MY bell.

Oh, NOES!

From the Beeb:

My kinda beer cooler!

Once widely mocked, US beer is now popular globally with hipsters and connoisseurs alike. Why is the world buying in to the American brewing revolution?

Not so very long ago, American beer was a joke. And a weak one at that.

To international tastebuds, it meant bottled lagers like Budweiser, Miller or Coors - commonly regarded by self-respecting drinkers as bland, corporate and lacking in credibility.

An explosion in independently-run microbreweries producing lovingly-created, strong, pungent, flavour-rich ales has transformed the reputation of the product.

But it is not only traditional aficionados of ale who have been won over by this American revolution.

Somehow, beer from the United States has become not just widely respected, but achingly fashionable.

Oh, shit, oh dear... It might be all over now, coz "fashionable" is the kiss o' death.  Still and even, it's good to see American craft beer get its long overdue recognition.  Now if only more AMERICANS would sign on, we'd be golden.  (Ahem)

RTWT... the article is a pretty good explanation about how craft brews got big.  There's video, too.

Apropos o' not much... I never was a big beer drinker until My Favorite Uncle sent me off to London for three years.  I immediately fell in with a bunch o' Brits who showed me what "real ale" was all about (aside: I was a card-carrying member of CAMRA) and I never looked back.  So we owe the Brits a debt o' gratitude o' our own.

Bottom Story o' the Day

I know I'm intruding on Taranto's territory, but I can't pass this up:

Hey Cohen... there's no need to delete yer tweet, mainly coz  Ms. Lauper most certainly IS hot and a spade's a spade, right?  But, Hey... you're a (D), so well... yeah.  I see it.  You doubtless have certain constituents who may take umbrage.  Poor you.

Really?

She might have a headache, too.

A Mutual Admiration Society... of Two

We've gone on a bit about how we love... in a brotherly sorta way... the relationship we have with our cigar provider.  Here's another example:

Tim Blythe	2:33 PM (22 minutes ago)
to me

Tim

Buck, you’ve been nothing but a gentleman since the first time I’ve worked with you.  It’s the least I could do.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Your friend,

Tim Blythe/Cigar.com

From: Buck Pennington
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 3:07 PM
To: Tim Blythe
Subject: Thank You!

Hey Tim,

I got a nice surprise in the mailbox yesterday... those Alec Bradley "Family Blend" sticks you sent at no charge arrived, along with the Drew Estate Ligeros.  Two boxes, same day!  Needless to say, Happy Hour was indeed happy yesterday afternoon.

Thank you VERY much for your service and attention, Tim.  My on-going relationship with you never ceases to both amaze and please me.

Best Regards,
bp

That, of course relates to the recent "cigars gone missing" episode which seriously pissed us off.  But we're pissed no longer and we're smokin' 'em, since we've got 'em.  Thanks to Tim.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Warm weather has returned to The High Plains o' New Mexico and that's a great good thing.  "Warm," in this case, means 66 degrees but it feels a whole hella lot warmer than that when you're sitting in full sun, which we're most definitely doin'.  We called Happy Hour a bit earlier than usual, mainly coz we wanted to take advantage o' this lovely day as early as possible.  And so we are.

Our soundtrack today is provided by Pandora's "quick mix" feature, which I dearly love.  (Side note: while it's warm outside it ain't quite warm enough to open up the house and listen to our personal music collection... so we're making do.  Which is much more than just making do, when ya get right down to it.)  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Quick Mix... Pandora essentially provides you with random selections from all the stations you've defined.  That makes for some interesting segues... like from the Stones to Mozart to Ol' Blue Eyes to John Philip Sousa to Kate Bush to Motown... and so on.  Here's what Pandora is drawing from in my case:

The sheer variety reminds me a lot of free-form FM radio back in the early 1970s, a programming option one doesn't find outside o' college radio these days, and it's pretty rare even there.  The QuickMix is JUST the thing when you're in that "I dunno WHAT the hell I want" kinda mood, not to mention the surprises and quick flashes of joy that happen when one improbable selection follows another.  It's great good stuff, Gentle Reader.

Which brings us to today's selection... Leon Russel singin' Bob Dylan.



This might could be a case of the cover exceeding the original.  Or not, depending on how yer mileage varies.  I like Leon's version a lot better than one of Bob's: 


 
That said, "Love Minus Zero" is a wonderful song and both versions speak to me... highly.

Enough.  Let's get back outside and continue as we've begun.

This Sorta Thing Happens EVERY Night

Minus the waiter, of course, and usually preceded by After Dinner Whiskey Hour.  That after-dinner nap just MIGHT be the reason we normally don't go to bed until the wee smalls and wake up somewhere near the crack o' noon.  I don't care... we don't have anywhere we absolutely, positively have to be in the mornings.  Mornings are generally over-rated, anyway.

Broadening, LIX

I kinda-sorta felt like I was in that old Ground-Pounder ad from the wayback today, in that we did more before noon (or was it 0900?) today than we usually do in a full day.  Which is to say we made our blog-rounds, drank all the coffee, showered/shaved, cleaned the bathroom, and went out to Cannon Airplane Patch to make a whiskey/beer/commissary re-supply run... doing all that well before the noon hour.  We thought about popping a beer and adjourning to the verandah after we got home and unloaded the groceries... and we actually gave it a shot, however briefly.  Alas, it was just a lil bit too cold for our tastes, so we brought ourself inside to continue as we began.  This was lunch:

One each, in this case.  You'll note the "over a half pound of malt in each bottle" bits, which fulfills the promise of a "meal in a glass" when it comes to Double Bocks.  I can only do one of these in a single sitting because the beer is just so damned rich... that and it's rather strong at 9.5% ABV.  So we followed up the Double Bock with a 312 Wheat and called it good... after which we retired to the couch for a well-deserved nap, mainly because we COULD.

The Sammy Adams Double-Bock is what Bocks should be all about... and it puts an exclamation point on our last foray into the wonderful world o' bock beers, in that there just ain't no comparison between the two.  Too bad the Sammy Adams Double-Bock is a seasonal beer, coz it would merit a permanent place in our fridge were it a regular offering.

And here it is... the traditional time (around these parts) for Happy Hour.  I suspect we'll pop the top on another of those Double-Bocks and attempt to retire to the verandah, as it's a mite warmer than it was three hours ago.  I'm not gonna hold my breath, however.

Congrats, Ladies!

The American women's hockey team took home the gold in the 2013 Women's World Hockey Championships Tuesday, beating Team Canada 3-2.  From the Globe and Mail:

For the Canadians, the loss, which came with a silver medal, dropped them to a still-impressive 14-8-0 record against USA in such competition. The Canadians have also won the last three Olympic gold medals, whereas the Americans took the first, when women’s hockey was first admitted to the Winter Games back in 1998.

As a prelude to Sochi next year, this week in Ottawa serves as a good foreshadowing for the next Olympics.

[...]

Both teams know they will meet – they outdistance the competition as diamonds to cut glass – and the U.S.-Canada games are always hard fought and intense.

Here's Amanda Kessel's game-winning goal:



That was a slick move around the Canadian defender and an absolute BULLET of a shot!

I'm looking forward to Sochi.  We've always been a big supporter of women's hockey here at EIP, and not only because of the game.  You go, Ladies!

WTF, Ma?

Our weather at the moment...

Here I thought winter was pretty much over.  Wrong, Bucko.

Not Your Father's Air Force XXIX

This is interesting...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force has designated six cyber tools as weapons, which should help the programs compete for increasingly scarce dollars in the Pentagon budget, an Air Force official said on Monday.

Lieutenant General John Hyten, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, which oversees satellite and cyberspace operation, said the new designations would help normalize military cyber operations as the U.S. military works to keep up with rapidly changing threats in the newest theater of war.

"This means that the game-changing capability that cyber is is going to get more attention and the recognition that it deserves," Hyten told a cyber conference held in conjunction with the National Space Syposium in Colorado Springs.

[...]

He gave no details on the new cyber weapons, but the Pentagon has become more open over the past year about its work to develop offensive cyber capabilities in the face of escalating cyber attacks by China, Russia, Iran and others.

That makes sense... weapons and weapons systems get funded, ephemeral "capabilities" not so much.  It's about time the US got serious about cyber-warfare.  There's a lot to do when it comes to securing our national IT infrastructure... financial systems, pipelines, power grids, the inter-tubes as a whole... not to mention our near total reliance on IT to conduct warfare in this day and age.  It's a good thing we're developing an offensive cyber capability but I tend to worry more... much more... about our cyber DEFENSES.

Apropos o' not much... the Air Force provided me with my entrée into the wonderful world of IT back around 1984 or so.  I didn't know a microprocessor from a food processor when my management made me the point guy for rolling out the first-ever desktop computers in my lil corner o' the Air Force Communications Command's Engineering/Installations Division.  The learning curve was steep... VERY steep... but that particular tasking/responsibility set the stage for my follow-on civilian career in IT, and the rest is history.  I gotta say the computer biz was one helluva lot more lucrative than the radar biz ever was.  Thanks, Air Force.

More On Lady Thatcher

That's from the Usual Source of these things and there are many, many more in the same vein.  I was amazed at the outpouring of condolences and comment on the death of Margaret Thatcher yesterday.  At one point in time fully half of memeorandum's page was occupied with obituaries and commentary on Mrs. Thatcher, the great majority of it positive.  Yeah, the usual idiots were not lacking in presence but they were decidedly in the minority.  The Daily Mail ran a sampling of the stupidity that emanated from those quarters (go, if'n you like playin' in the mud) and Twitchy featured a compendium of insensitive tweets (and photos) about the Lady's death.  But... as the cartoon above illustrates so well... the Lady stood up for something, something VERY important, all throughout her life.  It's so very true that you can judge a person by the quality of their enemies as well as their friends.

Charges Dismissed

It's with great regret that I'm forced to announce that all charges against The Old AF Sarge have been dropped as a result of the Article 32 hearing held earlier today.  We, the offended, presented our evidence to the proper convening authority, Brigadier General Alphonse Newissuance, to no apparent avail.  Gen Newissuance issued the following statement following the proceedings:

The Sarge, out o' uniform and wearing an offending hat.

We note with a certain gravity that the charges brought forth by the appropriate authority, one MSgt Buck Pennington, USAF (Ret), to wit: conspicuous treachery, traitorous behavior, and a gross disregard for the traditions and customs of the service, while seemingly grounded in fact, do not constitute a violation of the UCMJ, as written.  While we will not prefer formal charges, nor will we convene a General Court-Martial, we DO recommend the defendant be verbally counseled about his dereliction of duty and failure to uphold the good name and traditions of the United States Air Force, said counseling to become part of his permanent personnel record.  We also note the defendant, The Old AF Sarge, has, in fact, posted various and sundry positive articles about the USAF on his blog, to his great and everlasting credit.  We also note, with similar gravity, that he has also displayed a preference for the (ptui!) Naval Service and recommend he be further counseled to refrain from expressing said opinions to the detriment of the Air Force in future.

Dismissed.

Well, OK.  So be it.  But get this, Sarge:  we're WATCHING you, Buddy.  Toe the line, coz Gen. Newissuance might not be so charitable in future.

You may stand down.

Broadening Our Horizons, Episode LVIII

All the way from Illinois...

That would be a Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale, about which my go-to guys say...

Decent for what it is, there are clearly some other American Wheat Ales that are a few notches up. I'd still gladly order this if the selection looked dismal.

Damning with faint praise, in other words.  I concur, in that I've had better wheat beers.  The beer is worthy, though, and shall be consumed without prejudice and without a thought o' foisting it off on unsuspecting guests here at El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington.  Mine!  ALL mine!

Our cigar today is a Kuba Maduro from Drew Estate.  We were just ever-so-slightly worried about the other half o' Happy Hour today, seein' as how we put fire to our very last cigar this past evening during After Dinner Whiskey Hour.  Not to worry... the USPS came through and we are moderately Happy Campers.

I say "moderately happy" because that shipment o' cigars that went missing is still MIA.  We went down to the PO earlier today and they still haven't found the missing package.  And they admitted hope was slim to non-existent of EVER finding it, to their everlasting credit.  Oh, well.  Stuff happens.  I can afford to be ambivalent now that the humidor is fat once again.  That and the fact I rest easy knowing Tim will make everything right, even when the post office cannot.

In other news... our windows and door are wide open and we're enjoying yet another beautiful day (81 degrees with moderate breezes) out on the verandah.  We have a couple o' Stones albums, a Norah Jones album, and two Joan Osborne albums in the CD player, so all is right with the world.

With that in mind... here's today's semi-rhetorical question:  who would you rather spend a lost weekend with?  Norah?  Or Joan?  MY jury is out...

RIP, Mrs. Thatcher

From the Beeb:

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died "peacefully" at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke, her family has announced.

David Cameron called her a "great Briton" and the Queen spoke of her sadness at the death.

Lady Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the role.

She will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

The ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral.

The union jack above Number 10 Downing Street has been lowered to half-mast.

Baroness  Thatcher was one of the greatest western leaders during the Cold War and a heroine to be emulated in every regard.  She will be missed.

Escalation? Pah.

The Talking Heads on the Right Coast are bandying about rumors of escalating tensions and the possibility of outright war in the Old AF Sarge treason case.  Escalation?  We care not, for we have retained the services of that renowned desert warrior Lawrence o' New Mexico... who has come out o' retirement to lead the legions in the defense of our territory and our sacred honor.

Bring it, Infidel!

Even Der Fuehrer Agrees...

It's Air Force.



We're talking history here... not events in the recent past, which were a statistical anomaly.